leedesmond’s blog

Free for personal, non-commercial and educational use, PrimalPad is an advanced editor with built-in color-coding, multiple tab/window, auto row (line) numbering, bookmarking and multi-level undo/redo support, to name a few. This single, no-installation-required executable is available in 32- and 64- bit versions and supports authoring scripts in PowerShell, VBScript, JScript and plain old text files. Check it out yourself to see how it can make your life as an IT Administrator (or developer) easier and less error prone in writing that script!

Technorati tags: PowerShell, Community/User Groups

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Rather than opening individual RDP sessions to your back-end servers with Remote Desktop Connection, consider deploying Microsoft’s internal tool that goes by the name “Remote Desktop Connection Manager”, RDCMan. It offers more flexibility than the Remote Desktops MMC snap-in. For instance, the administrator can group servers into regions or by server roles. On the work pane itself, a live thumbnail view of all connected servers is shown.

This free tool at version 2.2 is now available for public download here.

Technorati tags: Tools/Utilities

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The Recording Converter for Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 is a free tool that converts meetings recorded in Office Live Meeting 2007’s High Fidelity Presentation (HFP) format into single movie files using the WMV format. It comprises of the Recording Converter Engine and Graphical User Interface.

The tool runs under Windows XP or higher with the .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows Media Player 9 or higher installed. To capture application or desktop sharing contents in a meeting recording, the Recording Converter should be run on a computer with Office Live Meeting 2007 already installed (as the needed decoders to export these contents are already present).

You can use applications like Windows Media Encoder, Windows Movie Maker or my favorite Camtasia Studio application to do additional transcoding or editing for specific purposes.

Find out more and download this tool here and here.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007 R2

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At many of my speaking engagements and blog posts, a lot of people keep coming up to me and post the same question -  what is the awesome program I use to create, author and playback video or run some of my demos? The application is Camtasia Studio from TechSmith.

Out-of-the-box, it supports a wide range of compatible formats like Silverlight Windows Media Video / Audio (WMV/WMA), Adobe Flash (SWF, FLV), MPEG-4 (H.264/AAC), .MOV, .MP4 or even .AVI from your digicam. You can edit and fine-tune the video and audio tracks separately on a granular timeline to your heart’s content by adding 3D tilt video effect prior to media production, for instance. Go check it out and the Visual Lounge blog today!

Vielen von euch haben mich diese Frage gestellt - wie heisst das Anwendungsprogramm, welches ich bei den verschiedenen Events und Blogs sowohl Videoaufnahme auch als Demos Wiedergabe durchgeführt habe? Der Name des Programms ist Camtasia Studio von der Firma TechSmith. Eine Ausgabe auf Deutsch mit entsprehendem Visual Lounge Blog (deutschsprachige) ist jetzt verfügbar. Mehr über die Features können Sie hier erfahren.

Si vous avez interéssé, vous pouvez téléchargér le programme Camtasia Studio (en français) de TechSmith ce que je montre dans ce blogue et pendant les démonstrations dans les événements différents. Il est possible de faire des enregistrements audiovisuells et les contrôler particulière avant la production finale. Voir les caractéristiques (features) et visitez-vous aussi le Visual Lounge blogue pour des informations actuels.

Technorati tags: Tools/Utilities

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A bug prevents XPS document types from being recognized under Windows Vista x64 installed with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Download the fix for this issue here. Note that Windows Installer 3.1 is a pre-requisite to install the latter.

Additionally, do not forget to apply KB959209 to address known application compatibility issues for the SP1 .NET Framework 3.5.

This topic may be of interest to users looking at deploying new services in OCS 2007 R2 (such as Attendant and Group Chat clients) where the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is mandatory on the client desktop.

Search for “OCS 2007 R2 (RTM) Client Deployment Considerations” on my blog for more information.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007 R2, Vista

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Network or system administrators should check out the latest version of PrimalScript 2009 to complement their arsenal of tools. This versatile and customizable integrated environment from SAPIEN Technologies supports a wide range of popular scripting, programming, web, XML, database and Adobe Flash development.

Different feature sets in the Standard, Professional and Enterprise packages from previous editions are now included in one single version of PrimalScript 2009. Check out the new features here. Registered owners of PrimalScript Enterprise are entitled to a free copy of the new PrimalSQL database management tool as part of the upgrade (more).

Download a fully functional trial version which you can unlock with a purchased license within 45 days. To qualify for any upgrade, registration of the PrimalScript product must be successfully completed online. Read the PrimalScript 2009 Upgrade FAQ and this official blog post here.

Side note:
I have been fielding questions on what I use to run scripting demos (with PrimalScript) in several of my presentations (virtualization, infrastructure, messaging, unified communications, etc.). Like since the PS 3.1 days, it is currently being used in a major global project to develop MS-DOS batch files, login scripts, VBScript, system programming (C/C++) and of course PowerShell (v1 and v2) to automate several Active Directory tasks (Windows Server 2008 and Server Core) supporting in excess of 10′000 accounts worldwide!

Technorati tags: Powershell, Scripting

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Active Directory is the foundation of modern day Windows infrastructure in many organizations. You can use the brand new ADInsight tool by the original Sysinternals duo to learn, discover and troubleshoot LDAP client-server communications such as Exchange 200x, DNS and Windows authentication in an AD forest / domain.

AD Explorer is the updated companion tool. It is positioned as an advanced on- and off- line AD viewer and editor with features such as snapshot, sophisticated searches and comparision, to name a few.

Both tools are free and run on Windows 2000 and above. Administrative permissions are not required but useful to enable access to additional functionality.

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Frustrated with the severe lack of or spaghetti state of (official) information from TomTom and/or Nokia in trying to put your shiny new maps on your Symbian driven smart phone? Not able to find the correct steps to take in order to make this REALLY work for you? I come across colleagues, associates, friends and clients that have been through this agony for ages without any luck to piece the various bits together to get this combination to function.

Here is an high level overview of the steps you can take to put this issue to final rest.

1. Install TomTom Home on your host operating system

2. Launch TomTom Home and download your purchased maps locally. Press Ctrl-F8 to download for later installation (if your device is disconnected)

3. Make sure that your temporary folder has sufficient space for TomTom Home to decompress the downloaded maps. The available physical free disk size should be equal to or greater than the size of the compressed map file. Otherwise you will not be able to proceed further.

4. Connect your device using the USB cable and select mass storage mode

5. On TomTom Home, choose Explore > My Computer tab, highlight the downloaded map and any other optional items to install (such as voices, zip codes, etc.) then click on the big Install button

6. Using your favorite web browser, separately download TomTom Navigator 6*

7. After successful download, use TomTom Home to install TomTom Navigator 6 to your device. The latter only shows up by taking these steps and is missing from any of the tabs (My Computer, TomTom CD or All Sources).

8. Quit the TomTom Home application.

9. Disconnect your device using the Safely Remove Hardware applet on your system tray. TomTom Navigator 6 will automatically start to complete installation on your device.

10. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate your purchased product. You will need both the product code as well as the device code to successfully setup for use.

* indicates only Nokia E61 but works also with N73

System requirements (tested configuration):

- Windows XP SP2
- Nokia N73 or variants
- Firmware V3.0705.1.0.31 26-01-2007 RM-133 (Symbian S60 OS Nokia N73 (08))
- Nokia PC Suite 6.84.10.3 and above
- USB 2.0 high speed cable and connection setup done
- TomTom Home 1.5 or above
- TomTom Navigator 6
- TomTom 6 maps (*.cab format is Symbian compatible)

References:

- How can I install downloadable maps using TomTom HOME?
- www.allaboutsymbian.com

Note:

- if needed, N73 > Tools > Application Manager > Options > Settings > Software Installation. Change to ‘all’ if currently set to ’signed only’.
- *#0000# to find out N73 firmware version

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